Actually Infuriating

Was cleaning out some old clothing and found a '08-'09 menu from Five Guys in a coat pocket. Today's prices are all 2x to 3x more in under 20 years. 🤬

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/29473

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s quarterly meeting in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, opened with a triumphant video homage to its work during Winter Storm Fern. Energy had come through, yet again, to defeat extreme cold. The montage credited this to the utility’s “coal workhorses,” then noted that nuclear provided “uninterrupted power” and “hydro responded instantly.” The list ended there, despite years of promises that the agency would bolster renewables and battery storage. The message was clear: Solar had been unceremoniously dropped from the mix, and coal, which the agency had been phasing out, was back.

What the video hinted at, the board made official. Its seven members unanimously dropped renewable energy as a priority, ended diversity programs, and granted two of the agency’s four remaining coal plants a reprieve. The decision followed the seating of four members selected by President Trump, breaking months of paralysis that followed the termination of three Biden appointees.

The changes, made during the Feb. 11 board meeting, signal more than a routine policy reset for the nation’s largest public power provider. They will slow the TVA’s shift away from fossil fuels just as electricity demand is spiking, raising questions about future costs, pollution, and the role of federally-owned utilities in the country’s energy transition.

For years, TVA planners had mapped out a future without coal. That is now on hold. The Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County, Tennessee, was scheduled for retirement in 2027, with all nine of its units slated for demolition and replacement with an “energy complex” of gas generation and battery storage. All of them will remain online alongside the gas plant, but renewables are no longer part of the picture. The board also shelved plans to scuttle the Cumberland Fossil Plant in Stewart County, Tennessee, in 2028.

These moves come despite the agency’s 2025 Integrated Resource Plan, which called for retiring the two facilities because of Kingston’s “high cost and challenged condition” and Cumberland’s “lack of flexibility.” The Kingston coal plant was also the site of a devastating 2010 coal ash disaster, the largest industrial spill in U.S. history.

The board defended its decision by citing energy affordability for the Tennessee Valley.

“As power demand grows, TVA is looking at every option to bolster our generating fleet to continue providing affordable, reliable electricity to our 10 million customers, create jobs, and help communities thrive,” agency spokesperson Scott Brooks said in a statement.

Left unsaid was the fact that a coal-fired power generation unit at the Cumberland Fossil Plant failed during last month’s storm.

Much of TVA’s load growth comes from the rise of artificial intelligence, said CEO Don Moul,  and data centers account for 18 percent of its industrial load. During the same meeting, the board allowed the company xAI, owned by Elon Musk, to double the amount of power it draws from the grid.

For former board member Michelle Moore, one of the Biden-era appointees President Trump fired in March, the shift aligns squarely with the administration’s priorities. It also signals, she said, that the utility is no longer fulfilling its mission to provide affordable power, economic development, and environmental stewardship across the seven-state Tennessee Valley. “The politics in Washington may change,” she said.  “But the TVA’s mission does not.”

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That independence has at times put the Tennessee Valley Authority at odds with presidents of both parties. The utility resisted Trump administration pressure to keep coal plants open, continuing to retire facilities based on economic reasons. But it also fell short of President Biden’s decarbonization goals.

Moore worries ordinary ratepayers are no longer an active part of TVA’s decision-making. Typically, a shift as monumental as turning away from renewable energy would have been subject to a lengthy review with input from communities throughout the region, something that simply will not occur now. “This is one more indicator that the public power model is being eroded and is at risk,” Moore said.

Last month, the TVA said it would streamline how it reviews the ecological impacts of its projects, allowing some to move ahead with far less, if any, scrutiny. The move follows a broader rollback of the National Environmental Policy Act under President Trump that grants greater discretion over such considerations to entities like the TVA. For nearly 60 years, the law required an assessment of the environmental impacts of federal projects. “Over the past several years, the TVA board has faced pressure to make decisions based on stringent environmental regulations,” said board member Wade White.

The TVA’s willingness to join the Trump administration’s push to revive the coal industry has rankled locals and environmentalists. In the first year of his second term, President Trump lifted Environmental Protection Agency restrictions on the industry, used emergency executive orders to keep aging coal plants open, expanded mining, and ordered the Pentagon to buy electricity from power plants that use coal. The president has since received an award from industry executives dubbing him the “Undisputed Champion of Clean, Beautiful Coal.”

From a public health standpoint, it’s a nightmare. “Coal is one of the worst things you can imagine for the environment,” said Avner Vengosh, a professor of environmental quality at Duke University who leads a coal and coal ash research group. Mining destroys ecosystems and poisons groundwater, polluting rivers and streams with sulfuric acid. Burning the fossil fuel releases fine particulate matter, impacting the health of nearby residents. A 2023 study in the journal Science found that coal plants caused nearly half a million excess deaths between 1999 and 2020, and a Sierra Club report notes that TVA coal-fired plants were the nation’s deadliest.

“People are upset, they feel like we’re going backwards,” said Amy Kelly, a Sierra Club campaign manager. “The fact that these plants are from the 50s and 60s, and we’re just going to prop them up with Band-Aid solutions to appease the current administration is going to cost people.”

Even some coal plant operators agree. A Colorado utility is suing to close a facility, calling a federal emergency order to keep it online “unconstitutional.” For those who live near the two plants the TVA just saved, the decision is, in Joe Schiller’s words, “a betrayal.” Schiller, a retired college professor, has lived near the Cumberland plant for 30 years. “It contradicts everything they’ve told us about the plants in the past,” he said. Even so, he added, it’s a beautiful area. Moments before, his wife had called him outside to admire the sandhill cranes flying by.

“It’s not like you look around every day and say, ‘Yep, that Cumberland plant is slowly killing me,’” Schiller said with a laugh. “Although it probably is.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The nation’s largest public utility is going back to coal — with almost no input from the public on Feb 19, 2026.

From Grist via This RSS Feed.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7304271

My company just started requiring Microsoft Intune Company Portal app to use Teams and Outlook. From a friend in IT infosec at another company said the app can push apps, require certain settings, password requirements, or OSs, and can see a lot of stuff on your phone. I don't think this level of intrusion into my personal phone is warranted or ethical. Be warned. I'm just going to uninstall and suffer the internal political consequences.

Wife and I stopped at a gas station to use the restroom. Pulling up I noted an old SUV on the side of the road that seemed to have one or more cars pulled over (4-5 total vehicles), blue flashing lights on the interior sides and interior rear. Y'all, blue lights are cop only, with some jurisdictions allowing ambulances and fewer allowing fire, not filthy unmarked 20-yo SUVs.

There was a young man standing by the driver's door talking to someone in front of him, but he was the only human I saw when we drove in and out. Plain clothes, but his position and body language said the flashy car was his.

Say it was a dumb kid with illegal lights, purposefully impersonating law enforcement. This was in the country, but it wasn't in the middle of nowhere. Legit cops would have been all over his ass.

The infuriating part? I have a legal, brown, immigrant wife and live in a country where that well could been an ICE agent hassling people. Or a rando hassling people.

Also infuriating, the Republicans told me my whole life that the Democrats wanted to turn America into Soviet-style communism. Now my wife has to carry her fucking papers every time she leaves the house, comrade. And even that doesn't protect her from arrest.

Can't imagine anything else this could have been. I've seen hundreds of plain vehicles over the decades, this was not one of them unless it was a seriously deep-cover thing, and if it was, the officer wouldn't have fucking lights.

Cannot think of a rational explanation except ICE. Am I nuts?!

EDIT: I should note the dumbest part: Saw no one with a mask. Is it really legitimate law enforcement if they're not masked?!

I don't care about Maduro, as far as I'm concerned, they can shoot him if they want. What matters to me is walking through the streets of my city and seeing the faces of fear on my neighbors. The military patrolling to prevent looting due to panic. It's a collective hangover, a horrible one.

It's 2016 all over again. It's seeing despair entering the circulatory system of all Venezuelans, only now it's more sudden, and we are painfully aware of it.

This is far from improving, and we know it.

source: https://xcancel.com/hiroshipj/status/2007024205272150219

DMCA or a diplomatic protest is appropriate.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/40976381

The plane carrying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Florida for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump passed through the airspace of three countries that are parties to the International Criminal Court, despite an active ICC arrest warrant against the Israeli leader.

Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24 showed Netanyahu’s aircraft, known as “Wings of Zion,” crossed the airspace of Greece, Italy and France before reaching the Atlantic Ocean.

All three countries are signatories to the Rome Statute, which obliges member states to cooperate with ICC arrest warrants.

TL;DR: if you're wondering why RAM so expensive nowadays, well you see, Sam Altman has bought 40% of global RAM to fuck his competence... And all the world.

Chargepoint is putting outrageous temporary hold charges on all charging stations. Probably some MBA fucking another business up.

Hi Person,

We’re writing to let you know about an important update to how payments are processed at ChargePoint stations.

As part of your use of ChargePoint services, a temporary hold charge of $50 for AC stations and $75 for DC stations will be placed on your payment method for each applicable charging session. Once the applicable charging session ends and the hold charge is removed, you will only be billed for the actual charging cost.

For more details, please see our FAQ: https://www.chargepoint.com/drivers/support.

Thank you, Team ChargePoint

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/35309257

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/39709680

Fucking 27 AI data centers and our state and local government are celebrating this. Even mentioning how great it is that we have all this fresh water to give them. It makes me sick.

cross-posted from: https://discuss.online/post/29544831

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing Johnson and Johnson, accusing the pharmaceutical company of failing to warn consumers about the risk of taking Tylenol while pregnant.

This lawsuit, the first of its kind from a state government, comes a month after President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced updated guidance discouraging pregnant women from taking acetaminophen, citing it as a possible cause of autism. The announcement set off a wave of controversy in the health care community, and confusion among pregnant women unsure how they should manage fever and pain during pregnancy.

What happens when you don't let a "smart device" phone home? Well...

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/37036228

Arial comparison of Gaza over the last 22 months of genocide.

A related comment spitting facts:

Time: 13:00 

I have noticed many times when on the roads. The absolute incompetence and lack of skill and ability. Most drives have. It genuinely is disheartening. It annoys me so much when people waste gas or make extra ware on their systems. 

Truthfully my opinion. They need to slowly integrate advanced driving courses. To learn probability, physics and overall predictive driving theory or spacecraft techniques. 

A few examples that made me so annoyed

1: I am driving up to a red light. I see two lanes. The middle lane has 6-7 cars piled up. The right lane has 3 cars. 

I notice I am driving about 45-50 mph. The light has been red for enough time. We can predict. It turns green within seconds. 

I am also turning right in three lights. So I switch to the right lane. As soon as I do. The light turns green. I begin slightly slowing. I begin to roll up on the cars at 25-30 mph and as soon as I reach half a car's length away from the last car. We all begin to move perfectly. 

Though the car behind me has to stop nearly fully and restart their acceleration. Leading to wasting fuel and causing extra stress to their systems. 

2: NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO DO THIS. I SWEAR!!! 😭😭😭😤

When I am on the highway. I normally stay in the far left lane. To signal. I am going extra fast, passing everyone. 

I came up on this decent curve going 85 mph. And slowed down just enough for the weight of my car to grab the side I’m turning into and then hard acceleration. Quickly and release. 

I then allow the pull of the weight and speed to launch me around the long curve without wasting any excess gas. 

3: Another example of what most people can’t do which is like how!!! How!!! The fuck 🤬😨

I came to this stop sign. To turn into major roads leads across towns. 55-60 mph. I saw on car coming far enough I could launch with no probabilistic worry. Though I missed a variable. Reading the car driving in the lane I was turning into. It’s speed. 

So it was coming about 25% quicker than I assumed. So when I hit 60 already I launched up to 75. Clearing a perfect gap. Reducing the probability of a collision by 100% when before it was an unknown of 15-20%. 

4th: Ok when PEOPLE FUCKING SEE A CAR that is going faster near lead car speed on the left far lane. If they pull over and slow down for a construction site. Omg follow them. Ahhhhh I get so pissed off by this. I noticed every speed trap and informed every single driver about the speed traps, but they did not listen. It’s like they don’t recognize the universal symbols.  Such as flashing brights for cops. I don't do that a lot because I don’t have to worry about that. I've already passed them though I flashed my hazards very rapidly to warn where the specific speed traps were. 

5th: If you are going to speed know how to do it! Yes I speed at 80-115 mph but I can safely control it and I don’t tailgate!! Also if I see a cop. In the right lane most times they are. I pull up next to a semi and partially slow down until out of site.

cross-posted from: https://lemdro.id/post/29413313